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difficult, the second was of infinitely greater difficulty. The forerunner was only expected to preach with distinguished zeal, but the Messiah must exert miraculous powers, if he attempted to gain credit with the Jews. Now, allowing what can hardly be believed,-that he gained over Mary, who could scarcely be upwards of fourteen years of age', who dwelt at Nazareth which was at a great distance from his place of residence, Hebron, and who must have been, even on the supposition, apparently virtuous;—allowing that he gained over Joseph, who was reputed a just man," and being but an obscure mechanic, was most unlikely to have understood, or to have been enticed into his views:-allowing, in short, that he singled out to conduct this double imposture, persons whose youth, and character, and distance, and situation in life, rendered them most inclined to reject his offers, or disclose his deceit; or if not, least qualified to forward his object;-yet how could he have known the sex of the other child, yet unborn?-how could he have foreseen it would survive till years of maturity?-how could he have presumed that it would be so utterly depraved as to

1 "Wedlock they (the Jews) esteem among the affirmative precepts which they make obligatory upon their whole nation. Every male coming to years of maturity is bound to take a wife to increase his family. Upon this account their espousals are very early; their daughters being usually betrothed at ten years of age." Lewis. Heb. Ant. lib. vi. 35. See also Calmet. Diction. Art. Marriage.

"The hill country of Judæa, was about seventy miles from Nazareth, where Mary lived. Macknight's Comment. on his Harmony, Sect. 4.

approve, and so preeminently skilful as to manage his desperate undertaking?-Nor was the danger of this fraudulent design less manifest than the improbability of its success. The true Messiah and his true forerunner were daily expected: their advent, therefore, would at once ruin the plot, and bring infamy and destruction on its projectors. An imposture, so fraught with peril from the vigilance of the Jewish priesthood, from the natural cruelty of Herod,-from the immediate approach of the Messiah, would not have been attempted, even with the most alluring views of future advantage. Yet here we suppose, that Zacharias and Elizabeth laid the foundation of a deep scheme of conspiracy, whose execution could only be effected when John and Jesus were of age to perform the duties of priest, which was no less than thirty years after, or, at least, when they reached the period of manhood,-a season at which they must have been in the grave, or on its verge, and unable to enjoy the fruits of their iniquity.Nor does it appear that, before this distant season, any gain was expected, for "John was in the deserts3 till the day of his shewing unto Israel"," and so retired and unknown, that, even sometime after his first appearance, the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him " Who art thou?" Besides, the personage whom John was to imitate, was to be distinguished for abstemious

* The hill country at Hebron, where John was born, was not totally uninhabited, but only more barren and uncultivated, and thence called the wilderness' by way of comparison. 4 Luke i. 80. 5 John i. 19.

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ness and severity; where then were their hopes of grandeur or of wealth? The advantage, if any, was visionary and remote: the danger manifest, imminent, and appalling. It is already evident that every one, who acknowledges the obvious truth, that impostors conduct themselves on principles of common penetration,-will allow that the difficulties which attend the supposition are insurmountable. Yet these difficulties are far from being all mentioned. New wonders are constantly arising, as we proceed, and fresh witnesses attest the truth and consistency of the miraculous events. If the whole were a forgery, we must implicate in it the Shepherds of Bethlehem, who all pretended to have beheld the "angel of the Lord" come upon them, and "the glory of the Lord" shine round about them, and to have heard the "good tidings of great joy," and the rejoicing and hymns of "a multitude of the heavenly host1;"—all these men of simplicity, the most unfit to promote the machinations of artifice, and the most likely to betray them, must have been entrusted, and that too without apparent necessity, with the great secret, and have acted their part in this inexplicable scene of deceit.-We must also implicate in it Simeon and Anna, though the former had the reputation of being "just and devout," and the latter" departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day;"all their prophetic declarations, all their effusions of inspiration and gratitude, all their previous pretences to holiness and revelations, must have

1 See Luke ii. 8-20.

2 Luke ii. 25-38.

been but the laboured devices of falsehood: that beautiful exclamation of apparently deep and touching piety and resignation:-"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation!"-must have been the affected grimace of hypocrisy and fraud, and we must believe that an undertaking of danger was supported by intriguers of fourscore years!-But the monstrous absurdity does not stop here. We must also implicate the wise men3 that came from the East to worship the young King of the Jews.' The star, that is related to have guided them, and the dream, that warned them to depart,-both were the inventions of craft and mockery. Here we have another intricate and unaccountable plot. That these persons really

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3 Matt. ii. 1-16.-The Unitarians reject the first two chapters of St. Matthew, (except the genealogy). But the beginning of the third chapter is connected with something preceding, and both the first and the second are to be found in all the MSS now extant' *;-they are contained in all the ancient versions ;-they are referred to as genuine by the earliest Fathers ;—they were not doubted by the opponents of Christianity. The Ebionites, it is said, rejected them; but they also rejected the last three Gospels, all the Epistles of St. Pault, and the first seventeen verses of St. Matthew, which, abandoning their standard of authority, the Unitarians retain. If it were not foreign from our subject, we might establish their authenticity on several other grounds. For what Tertullian says of Marcion may be applied, without injustice, to many a modern objector: "Exertè et palam machærâ, non stylo, usus est: quoniam ad materiam suam cædem scripturarum confecit."-See Dr. Magee on the Atonement, Vol. II. Append.-Laurence's Crit. Reflect. &c. c. ii.-Simon's Crit. Hist. c. viii. &c.

* Impr. Vers.

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↑ Iren. lib. i. c. 26.

arrived at Jerusalem ;-that they enquired after the child Jesus-that Herod commanded them, when they had found him, to acquaint him with the place where he was;-that they adored the infant, and presented unto him "gifts,-gold, and frankincense, and myrrh ;"-that they departed secretly;

lastly, that Herod "slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under;"- these are facts which, if false, the Evangelist durst not have related, or, if he durst, were too important and too public to escape instantaneous detection. Zacharias and Joseph, therefore, must have prevailed on a number of adventurers to let Herod know, that the object of his fears was born, and that they were come to pay homage to his rival! Surely, if they relied on human means alone, it was not very consistent with their character ofwise men' to execute such an embassy to a tyrant, not at all remarkable for his tender regard for the life and safety of his enemies. Yet to suppose that they were not really Magi, is to imagine that the deep and politic Herod was deceived,--that the whole "council of the chief priests and scribes" was deceived,—that all the inhabitants of Bethlehem and Jerusalem were grossly deceived.-The supposition is impossible. We must admit that they were really the persons, whose characters they assumed. Nor could any previous plan have been concerted; for neither could Joseph and Mary have had any intention that Jesus should be born in Bethlehem, since it was the effect of a decree of Augustus; nor could

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